Top all-time · #2195
Timothy Snyder
Personal blog · snyder.substack.compoliticshistory
Timothy Snyder writes Thinking about..., a personal blog at snyder.substack.com about politics and history. Since 2021, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 76 times, most often “How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 3 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Timothy Snyder's Substack for commentary on US politics, authoritarianism and history. Posts cited include 'Twenty Lessons on Tyranny', 'Maduro in Minneapolis' and 'Of Course It's a Coup'.
- Recommended for · 3 comments
- Called 'useful', 'fantastic' and 'sharp scary analysis'; one commenter recommends 'Maduro in Minneapolis' and another praises the Ukraine lectures.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Opening the future by understanding the past. Click to read "Thinking about...", by Timothy Snyder, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Most-linked posts?
- How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end?4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-10-05
- Of Course It's a Coup3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-02-05
- Playing the Victim3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-03-15
- Decapitation Strike2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2025-02-19
- /p/russias-genocide-handbook2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-04-14
- State Terror2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-15
- /p/ukraines-maidan-revolution2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-01-23
- The Strongman Fantasy – and Dictatorship in Real Life2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-23
- /p/concentration-camp-labor2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-07-05
- On Superpower Suicide2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-05-09
What Hacker News says?
> Russian direct energy supplies to the EU have been cut, raising energy costs So the EU should have been more careful not to be too dependent on Russia? Maybe Germany should have avoided shutting down their nuclear reactors. The idea that US should cut of our allies in Europe is stupid and insane but at the same time Europe made a lot of mistakes that it should learn from > What pockets planned and backed up the Ma…
Comment linking /p/ukraines-maidan-revolution
on “TikTok goes dark in the US”Submitted Of Course It's a Coup as a story · 144 points
HN discussionThis felt useful to me: > Make sure you are talking to people and doing something. The logic of “move fast and break things,” like the logic of all coups, is to gain quick dramatic successes that deter and demoralize and create the impression of inevitability. Nothing is inevitable. Do not be alone and do not be dismayed. Find someone who is doing something you admire and join them. https://snyder.substack.com/p/the…
Comment linking /p/the-logic-of-destruction
on “Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed”Submitted Appeasement at Munich as a story · 93 points
HN discussionThis is an administration that openly is talking about annexing Canada, as well as invading panama and Greenland. It's an administration that has literally said "we want government workers in trauma." Historians are actively comparing us to Nazi Germany. https://snyder.substack.com/p/what-to-expect-when-youre-expe... The holocaust started as a deportation effort. Trump reportedly said "I wish I had Hitler's generals…
Comment linking /p/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting
on “Boycott IETF 127”Submitted How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end? as a story · 74 points
HN discussionThe fact that this is downvoted is deeply disturbing. Timothy Snyder has similar thoughts on concentration camp labor: https://snyder.substack.com/p/concentration-camp-labor Meanwhile, SV darling Curtis Yarvin is plainly insinuating that we should bring slavery back: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:gqqqg5xi4p2x4bfgphr7akip/po... What in the fuck is wrong with people?
Comment linking /p/concentration-camp-labor
on “OBBB signed: Reinstates immediate expensing for U.S.-based R&D”Submitted The Strongman Fantasy – and Dictatorship in Real Life as a story · 27 points
HN discussion> This is true for many programs for reasons that will be hard to understand if you aren't a scientist. It is a decapitation strike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decapitation_(military_strateg... Ukraine is more or less a proxy war between America and Russia, which is also between John Locke's Social Contract and Thomas Hobbes Leviathan, which said simply is whether rules are made in respect to reason (law) or in r…
Comment linking /p/decapitation-strike
on “Everyone at NSF overseeing the Platforms for Wireless Experimentation is gone”Submitted State Terror as a story · 23 points
HN discussionSome times I think that would actually be useful for some politicians that do not care about history and prior knowledge. * Rule of law is a good idea * Dictatorship is a bad idea * Allowing Germany to occpy Sudetenland in the Münich appeasement 1938 was a bad idea. [1] * ... [1] https://snyder.substack.com/p/appeasement-at-munich?triedRed... But that said! If this service works I think I could use it. I can handle…
Comment linking /p/appeasement-at-munich?triedRedirect=true
on “TL;DW: Too Long; Didn't Watch Distill YouTube Videos to the Relevant Information”Submitted Decapitation Strike as a story · 18 points
HN discussionTwenty lessons on tyranny from Timothy Snyder: https://snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-lessons-on-tyranny
Comment linking /p/twenty-lessons-on-tyranny
on “Resist Authoritarianism by Refusing to Obey in Advance (2017)”Submitted How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end? as a story · 18 points
HN discussion> So, I kind of get why people might not like your argumentation style. Yeah. I know I should dial it down a little. But I'm actually really concerned about the US. They do have a lot of mass shootings, and not even tackling this problem does point to a larger dysfunction in the US. And Trump does not accept is loss and 60% of republicans agree. That's why I actually fear that the next elections in the US will not b…
Comment linking /p/911-and-16
on “Europe is now a corporate also-ran. Can it recover its footing?”Submitted 9/11 and 1/6 as a story · 18 points
HN discussionCyncicsm is the belief that you don't think there is anything worth fighting for. Cynicism is an admission that you prefer to submit than fight. Most of the world looked at Ukraine and cynically said that Zelenskyy would flee and Ukrainians would not fight because they themselves would not be willing to fight. Few people have values they would consider dying for. Few people would put themselves at risk for another p…
Comment linking /p/ukraines-maidan-revolution
on “US judge finds administration wilfully defied court order in deportation flights”Submitted Look on my works, ye Mighty as a story · 12 points
HN discussionFrom Prof. Tim Snyder, https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-absurdity-is-the-point > War with Canada is what Trump seems to have in mind. Fentanyl is not the only the big lie. That Canada does not really exist is the other. The way that this fiction is formulated is strangely Putinist. Trump's rhetoric about Canada uncannily echoes that of Russian propagandists towards Ukraine. The claim that the country is not real; t…
Comment linking /p/the-absurdity-is-the-point
on “Federal cuts disrupt repairs to iconic U.S. trails”Submitted The Next Terrorist Attack as a story · 11 points
HN discussion> The jury is still out on whether what you are saying is hyperbole The president of the Heritage Foundation said “we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” https://archive.is/Ku2KG -- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/03/heritage-... This is a direct quote from a major institution behind the current administration that is well kn…
Comment linking /p/of-course-its-a-coup
on “U.S. stock futures tumble indicating another plummet on Wall Street”Submitted Russia's Crimea Disconnect as a story · 10 points
HN discussionCompare pictures of Australian Border Force to the US ICE - pretty clear differences - name tags and a lack of durags across the face are obvious differences, death rate directly at the hands of the ABF is another. I restate to be clear, Australia has a law abiding border force subject to Federal and State laws, whereas the US has ICE, an unchecked lawless throwback to the death squads of the totalitarian regimes of…
Comment linking /p/lies-and-lawlessness
on “ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos into a Palantir Database”Submitted Timothy Snyder: “How to think about war in Ukraine” as a story · 9 points
HN discussionBecause a state-run news site accidentally published a victory article. "Ukraine has returned to Russia...It will be reorganized, re-established and returned to its natural state as part of the Russian world...[Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will now act] in geopolitical terms as a single whole," https://www.newsweek.com/state-run-russian-news-site-acciden... Also if you take the time to notice what Putin is saying and…
Comment linking /p/russias-genocide-handbook
on “Americans’ views on the war reveal a striking generational divide”Submitted Of Course It's a Coup as a story · 8 points
HN discussionhttps://snyder.substack.com/p/antisemitism-and-antisemitism But why was Columbia put first? It is in New York. More than twenty percent of its undergraduate students are Jewish. No matter the experiences or attitudes of these students, their university suddenly losing four hundred million dollars is unlikely to improve their education and life chances. Columbia students can speak for themselves. My guess is that Col…
Comment linking /p/antisemitism-and-antisemitism
on “NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University”Submitted State Terror as a story · 7 points
HN discussionCalling someone anti-Semitic is exactly the same thing as calling someone Russophobic, Sinophobic, or saying they have Trump Derangement Syndrome. It's a rhetorical weapon to call people who are critical or people who have been harmed irrational. It switches the roles of abuser and victim by accusing the victim of irrational hatred towards their abuser. The only reason that word isn't experienced the same as the oth…
Comment linking /p/antisemitism-and-antisemitism
on “NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University”Submitted Crossing a Line as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
